FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Jordan Burrough (Greensboro, N.C.) and Chase Wade (Archdale, N.C.) each connected on a home run while the backend of the bullpen, including Wade, locked it down for the Guilford College baseball team who finalized nonconference play with a 10-7 victory over Methodist University at Armstrong-Shelley Field on Tuesday night.
Both teams entered with identical 15-18 records, but it was the Quakers who came away with their seventh win in their last nine games to finish the 8-10 outside of league play and 16-18 overall. It was also the nonconference finale for the Monarchs who finish 8-11 in such contests 15-19 overall.
Neither starter recorded an out in the second inning, and neither factored into the decision in the contest. Adam Anderson (Gastonia, N.C.) was the first of seven Quaker arms deployed on the night allowing three runs, all earned, on three hits and a walk across 1.0 inning. The first of eight pitchers used by MU, Presley Patterson only lasted 0.2 innings allowing five runs, all earned, on five hits and two walks. Logan Dodson (Eden, N.C.) navigated around two hits and a walk in a scoreless fifth to receive the win, his first since 2022, and improve to 1-0. Tanner Simpson failed to record an out while allowing three runs, all earned, on four hits and ended up on the hook for the loss, falling to 1-2. Wade walked a man, but also fanned one, clinching his third save of the season, and seventh of his career, matching Justin Morrison '15 for fourth-most in program history.
Guilford got a huge boost from the bottom of the lineup with the five through nine hitters, Wade, Ethan George (Burlington, N.C.), Burrough, Nick Boles (Madison, N.C.), and Josh Howard (Salem, Va.), all collecting two hits. Burrough connected on a double and a longball, scoring twice and driving in a game-high three runs, Wade contributed a pair of RBI's as well as crossing the plate twice. Getting a spot-start in the leadoff spot, Grayson Tudor (Reidsville, N.C.) went 1-of-3 with two walks and two driven in. Michael Sumner (Mooresville, N.C.) led Guilford with three hits in addition to a walk, scoring once and driving in one. Seven different Monarchs scored a run and five different players drove in a tally on the night. Banks Hartman and Brandon Mauger had three hits each for the hosts.
Guilford scored half of their runs in the first inning, loading the bases immediately against Patterson with Tudor and Isaiah Hairston (High Point, N.C.) walks straddling a Sumner single. Aaron Williams (Mocksville, N.C.) rolled into a double play, but plated Tudor in the process before Wade brought Sumner home with a single into center. George also picked up a hit before Burrough got into an advantage count at 3-1, and crushed his first homer of the season into the trees beyond the leftfield fence, making the lead 5-0 before a Monarch had even picked up a bat.
Methodist countered in the bottom half as after Anderson got the first two outs swiftly, but then Hartman singled, sparking a two-out rally. Banks Engle followed by splitting the gap in right-center to bring in the first run for the home team. A walk drawn by Caleb Rogers put runners on the corners and they then executed a first-and-third double steal. Mauger singled in Rogers making the score 5-3 before a strikeout ended the frame.
An eventful second featuring another double play, two errors, a man caught stealing, and a bases loaded jam, but no runs to show for it, gave way to a third inning that started with a bang. On the second pitch of the stanza, Wade blasted his second home run of the season, over the fence in left-center to extend the advantage to 6-3.
The hosts battled back beginning in the bottom of the third. Back-to-back one-out singles, with some help from a misplay in center to advance them, put two in scoring position. A sacrifice fly and a wild pitch brought the score to 6-5. Then in the fourth, they picked up consecutive singles to open the inning, before a SAC bunt and an RBI-groundout leveled the score at six.
The Quakers seized the advantage for good in the sixth. Burrough lit the spark with a leadoff double, then took third as Boles legged out a sacrifice bunt attempt for a hit. Howard got the lead back for GC with a single to the opposite field then Tudor and Sumner matched his output with run-scoring singles of their own before a two-ball ended the inning with a 9-6 lead.
Guilford would get an insurance run on a Tudor RBI-groundout in the eighth, reaching double-digits in scoring for the fourth time in their last five games, and all the while the Quaker bullpen was busy shutting things down.
The combined efforts of Dodson in the fifth, Jack Ratliff (Greensboro, N.C.) for four outs, Reese Baker (Ashland, Va.) for 1.2 innings, and Wade in the ninth restricted the MU offense. They did get one run, charged to Ratliff, on a sacrifice fly in the seventh, but Baker would escape a bases-loaded jam to maintain the lead and the Quaker tally in the eighth would bring the final score to 10-7.
With nonconference play now complete, GC gets to return their focus to Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play tomorrow, April 17th, making the road trip up to Averett University in another important conference clash. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 PM.
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